Special use permit approved for cabinet shop, Murphy-Harpst zoning change request tabled
Polk County Commissioners modified and then approved one zoning application for a cabinet shop during their regular session in July and tabled an application for a zoning change requested by the Murphy Harpst Children’s Center.
Property owner Gail Chambers’ application was for a zoning change to commercial use to allow a remodel and add-on to an existing structure which would then be used as cabinet shop. The shop would be operated by David Fincher.
Chambers told the board during their July 13 work session that the building on the property had been used as a pawnshop in the past. She said she’d like to see the building used again following her husband’s death.
Fincher told the commissioners the only work he would be doing on the property would be in the existing structure which would be expanded for more work area in the new shop.
Instead of approving a zoning change, the commissioners granted Chambers a special use permit allowing for the cabinet shop.
A zoning change proposed by Murphy Harpst Children’s Center to allow a different use for one of the buildings on their Grady Road property was tabled by board members for an August decision, giving the commission more time to gather information about the property.
The change, if approved, will allow for the organization to rent one of two buildings on the Grady Road property to Carolyn Hightower, who wants to locate a senior independent living facility there with seven residents onsite.
Chuck Troutman, who spoke to the board about the request, told commissioners that the seniors who would be living at the facility would be mobile and active. He specifically stated it would not be an assisted living or nursing home.
“That property was used as a group home many years ago, but it has been empty for some time,” Troutman said. “In the other building, we have a training unit and office space for staff that covers around 38 foster kids in a five-county area at the moment.”
He said the additional revenue from leasing the building to Hightower would help offset the cost of Murphy-Harpst’s upkeep on the property.
Commissioners heard opposition to the zon- ing change from family members of Sarah Murphy, one of the namesakes for Murphy-Harpst and former caretaker to orphans herself.
In fact, family members who spoke before the commission said they were opposed to the property being used for anything at all.
They claimed the deed to the property remained in Sarah Murphy’s name after her death, but Troutman said the children’s center has had the deed since the early 1980s, when the Children’s Center was incorporated with the Harpst Home in downtown Cedartown. the properties make up the majority of the campus today for Murphy- Harpst Children’s Center.
One item noticeably missing from the zoning approval requests was the application by Medcare Management, Green Landfill, and David Jackson for a zoning change for property on Highway 278 in southwest Polk County.
After hearing from residents around the Coot’s Lake area who were opposed to the project, and from A&M Disposal’s Matthew Iles, who spoke for the applicants, the board members denied the application to change the zoning from commercial to industrial.
Commissioners would have taken up the issue during their July 14 meeting, but county manager Matt Denton said the applicants had withdrawn the request for the zoning change.